Amazon Scoots Past Apple's Rules With HTML5 iPad Kindle Store

Back in July, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and other content providers pulled the purchasing options from their iOS apps, in order to comply with Apple’s new in-app purchasing restrictions. Today Amazon launched a workaround–a Web-based HTML5 Kindle store specifically optimized for the iPad.

The site is www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore. (You have to click that link through an iPad to see how it looks.) The store is optimized for a horizontal iPad screen, with big book cover icons. Amazon’s bestseller lists and New York Times (NYSE: NYT) bestsellers are prominently featured. When you launch the store site, a little message pops up inviting you to add it to your iPad’s home screen.

Users can also tap a button that leads them directly to the HTML5 Kindle Cloud Reader, which Amazon released in August. The web-based store does not link back to the Kindle for iPad app.

Content providers have generally focused on HTML5 apps as a way to circumvent Apple’s in-app purchasing restrictions, which were rolled out in July and require publishers to remove buy buttons from their apps or give Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) a 30-percent cut of sales made via the app. The Financial Times rolled out an HTML5 app, for example, and Kobo said in July that it would release one by the end of the year, although it has not done so yet.